The Blind Date
by drummergurl
Summary: AU fic...Abby and Carter don't know each other and are set up on a blind date. My first fic- be gentle! :)


The Blind Date

Rating:- PG. Methinks…

Category:- AU/Romance, Carter/Abby fic.

Spoilers:- Nope.

Disclaimer:- Unfortunately, I do not own these characters. After some rehab I have finally come to terms with this fact, and grudgingly state that the characters of John Carter, Abby Lockhart and t'others are all the property of the E.R. dudes. 

Authors Notes:- Set in completely alternate Universe, where Abby works at another Hospital. She's never met John Carter, and the two have been set up on a blind date…. If you don't like it… well what can I do? It's only my first fic so be gentle. LoL! 

Extras:- MUCHOS MUCHOS gracias to Kitty for being such a FAB help! Some lines, (not a lot! Hehe!), are hers.

**The Blind date**

John Carter looked at the slip of paper in his hand. Now that he was here he was beginning to have second thoughts. _WHY _had Dave talked him into going on a blind date? And with some Nurse from another hospital that he only had Dave's word on was "a hottie". Sighing, he looked at the number on the paper, matched it to the door in front of him, and knocked three times.

***

At 6:15pm, Abby Lockhart was drying her hair, and cursing her friend's boyfriend Dave for setting her up on a blind date. She hated things like this. The memory of her 19th birthday blind date still lingered fresh in her mind. The sight of the toupee, the hobby of stuffing dead animals, and the endless racist jokes ran riot in her mind whenever she was reminded of the awful evening with "Mitch". She shuddered, and then giggled involuntarily at the remembrance of her escape. Bathroom windows now had a whole new meaning to her. With a wry smile she turned off the drier, fluffed her hair and glanced down at the note Fran had scribbled to her before she had left work to receive her blind date- who was probably 50, fat, bald, and into stuffing dead humans.

-Abby! Just to remind you- he's called JOHN CARTER! He's coming at 6:30pm. And Abby? Dave says he's a great guy. Come on, you need a man! Then you can double with us! Anyway, I'll call you later. If you're not too busy with Johnny boy!Have a great time~ Fran-

_ _

Smiling ruefully she turned up the nob on the radio, to hear Lifehouse's "Hanging By A Moment" blaring out at full volume. It was her favourite song at the moment, and she sung at the top of her voice as she danced into the kitchen and nursed the chicken casserole bubbling nicely on the stove. She hoped he wasn't vegetarian. Perhaps she should have asked? Ah well. Too late now. She'd just have to serve it and tell him it was Quorn if he asked.

"I'll take your invitation…" She sung to herself as she crouched down and observed the apricot strudel in the oven. It looked like the heat would need turning down. Reaching her right arm up over the counter she felt around for dial when suddenly-

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

Three loud raps on the door made her yelp from fright and throw herself backwards, bringing with her the wooden spoon she had been using to stir the casserole and spilling bright red sauce all over her shirt.

"Shit!" She whispered, and scrambled to her feet, grasping for a tea towel and wiping the offending stain from her top. 

"Coming! Just… Just a second!" She yelled in the direction of the door and grabbed another shirt from the pile of clean clothes on the washing machine. Ripping off her ruined shirt she rued the day she did anything to offend karma, and vowed to work in a soup kitchen for every Christmas between now and Judgement Day to avoid any more mishaps and bad luck that came her way these days.

Finally thrusting her arms into the new garment she bunched the other shirt into as tight a ball as she could and opened the door with a flourish of energy.

***

John Carter had just lowered his hand from knocking when the most tremendous crash could be heard coming from inside. Slightly worried, he paused a second before opening his mouth to voice his concern through the door, when a muffled- "I'm coming," came floating through. More sounds of scrabbling, and the occasional profanity greeted him as he waited in the hall, not a little scared of the evening he was about to have.

Then all at once the door opened, and a woman with a flushed face, a shirt that wasn't done up and ruffled hair stared up at him. She was clutching a soggy ball of material in her right hand and looked as about as pleased to see him had he been wearing a black mask and been carrying a scythe.

"Um… high." He started with as much pleasantness as he could muster faced with this strange sight. "I'm, John Carter." He extended his hand. She made to accept it, and as she did so seemed to suddenly realise the openness of her shirt and snatched herself back into the apartment turning away from him and fumbling to button it up. 

"Err, just, err come in. John." She said over her shoulder, throwing the soggy material in a basket to the right as she did so. She was as red as a tomato. John felt a little sorry for her, and smiling he stepped into her house.

"I brought some wine. Where shall I put it?" He questioned while staring at her window.

"Oh." Carter turned and saw her standing facing him, running a hand through her hair. She was done up and un-ruffled, and he had to say she really was very attractive. But, she had a strange look on her face and the smile playing on his lips faded with confusion.

"Um… Thank you, John." She started, moving towards him and reaching for the bottle. "It's just that, um, I don't drink." She was smiling at him with an unreadable expression. Turning the bottle over in his hands, John was silent for a second, and then shrugged it off.

"Oh well, never mind. You can keep it and give it to someone else." 

"No." She said, taking it and making toward the kitchen. "I'll put it in the refrigerator and you can take it back with you. It looks very expensive- I couldn't take it."

John smiled and put his hands in his pockets following her.

"Ok."

***

Abby opened the door to the refrigerator and put the wine in carefully. It had cost a fortune. Either he was trying to make a good impression or this guy was filthy rich. She turned and took in his smart looking suit and tie. He did look nice. In fact, the more she stared at him the more she took a liking to him. Dave hadn't mentioned just how good-looking John Carter was. She had just begun to look forward to the evening ahead, when the memory of his first look at her with her bra showing and hair like a crow's nest flooded back into her mind. 

"Ok, John. The casserole will be ready in a few minutes so you can make yourself comfortable over on the couch there. Help yourself to the bits on the table there."

She watched him sit down at the end of the couch, and politely pick up a few mixed nuts from the dish. Smoothing herself down she walked over and sat down on the chair opposite. "_Small talk Abby, make small talk and save the big things for dinner."_ Fran's advice went round and round in her mind as she struggled for something small to talk about.

"So. I hear you're Dave's friend." Oh great Abby. State the obvious.

"Yeah," he laughed. At least he wasn't groaning. "We work at the same hospital."

"Yeah. Both doctor's." Wow girl. You're eloquence is just shining through here. Quick say something funny."I'm a nurse." Ok. Not quite what I had in mind.

"Oh yeah? You gonna stay with that? Or be a doctor…? John looked genuinely interested, and Abby's heart lifted in her chest. He was having a strange effect on her; she was actually beginning to feel quite attracted to this man.

"Yeah. I think I am. I mean I started out as a Nurse before I went to Med-School, then when my tuition money… fell through… I just went back to nursing. I thought about re-applying but I realised that Nursing is enough for me." (She thought it best to skip the fact that her bastard ex-husband had 'forgotten' to pay it; it's never good to start ranting about failed marriages on a first date).

John was leaning forward looking genuinely interested, and Abby thought the evening didn't look so ominous after all; she certainly wasn't thinking of the bathroom window. 

"Hey, that's great. I used to be a surgical resident, before I switched to Emergency Medicine…"

***

The quickly moved from the living room to the kitchen, immersed in continuous conversation. They couldn't learn enough about each other. John talked about his brother's untimely death in his childhood, and his stabbing last year. Contrary to most people, she didn't give him pity, but rather expressed her sorrow at the situation- and moved on. It was refreshing and the warm feeling he had been feeling towards her for the greater part of the evening was growing in his stomach. 

Dinner was divine. She was an amazing cook. She had asked him as they sat down at the table if he was a vegetarian, and then if he was a Taxidermist. When he assured her that was not only a meat eater, but also a great lover of burying the dead, she had laughed- and the sound had filled him with joy. He made a mental note to buy Dave the biggest breakfast Doc McGoo's would supply tomorrow morning.

He learned of Abby's struggle with her a bi-polar mother, and that her brother was an Air-Traffic controller in Florida. She had grown up in Minneapolis and her last boyfriend had moved back to Croatia nine months previously.

"It wasn't really anything anyway." She said while swallowing her last mouthful of Apricot Strudel. "We just had a fling. We couldn't communicate properly and he didn't really know what I wanted or what I needed. It ended pleasantly and we're still friends."

John laughed. "Even though he's… In Croatia?!"

"Well, he does call occasionally! We were involved!" She laughed again. That sound. John had to look down at his plate to restrain himself from giggling like schoolboy.

***

Abby laughed for the third time in as about as many minutes as she curled her legs up underneath her on the couch as she listened to the culmination of the story John was telling her about a joke played on him at work.

"So, like, here I am with this huge plaster cast on my leg- having to deal with this mass trauma that came in, and… eurgh. It was absolute madness."

Abby had to cover her mouth with her hand to stop herself throwing her head back and guffawing at the image she had in her mind. John was laughing too and his smile was doing strange things to her heart. It kept flying up to her mouth, and then shooting back down again. She was feeling something she hadn't since college, and she liked it. He was next to her on the couch, and his top button had been undone. He looked relaxed, and very sexy. Abby had to physically restrain herself from reaching out a hand and grabbing him. She didn't want to rush anything, and he may not feel the same way.

***

_God, I hope she feels like I do. _John thought as he stared at her next to him; her eyes glistening, one hand underneath her head as she leant against the back of the couch facing him, curled up like she was totally comfortable, and didn't have a care in the world. John couldn't remember when he had last felt so much attraction towards someone. There had been Anna, but she had left over three years ago before he had really had a chance to let it go anywhere. Abby was lovely. She was beautiful, made his stomach flip, was clever, and most of all she made him laugh. Her story about her last blind date had made him laugh so hard that he had almost choked on his dessert, but whereas normally embarrassment would have forced him into silence, he just carried on laughing.

He looked at the clock on the wall. It was past one. He had an early shift in the morning, and he really needed to get some sleep. He didn't want to leave, but he had to. Plus, he didn't know how much longer he could stay here without doing something that might ruin what he thought could be something good.

"I should be going." He said to Abby regretfully. She was still smiling, but he was sure he saw something like disappointment on her face. She sighed and sat up straight.

"Yeah. I've got to get some sleep. Early shift…" She mumbled.

John nodded. There was a silence, before John smiled at her and stood up extending his hand for her to help her up.

"Well, Abby. I had a great time. Really. I can't remember the last time I had such a good time, or such great food. You have a gift!"

She took his hand and stood up next to him. They were very close, and she didn't let go of him.

"Yeah, me too." She agreed. There was split second pause before she blurted out- "We should do it again…"

John smiled, and nodded.

"Definitely."

There was a pause as they looked into each other's eyes, each one listening to their own heart race in their chest, and their blood pulsing in their ears. Flushed faces and shallow breathing. Each intoxicated with longing for the other. John's brain was screaming at him to kiss her, but a rational voice inside him told him to go, make plans, and see her again without ruining it. He never had a chance to decide which one he would listen to. At that point, Abby leaned in, and kissed him lightly on the mouth.

A light rush shot up John's body from his feet to his head sending him reeling with pleasure. He paused for a split second, before responding gently to her mouth, pulling her closer, and resting his hands gently on the small of her back. She moved into his embrace, and the kiss became more passionate. 

"Don't you have to be going?" Abby mumbled when she caught her breath.

"I can spare a few more minutes." John grinned, before pulling her back to him, and losing himself in her arms. 

***

THE END CHAPS!


End file.
